Senator Quits Minority Post In New Jersey

By MELODY PETERSEN

Published: November 8, 1997

TRENTON, Nov. 7—
John A. Lynch, the mastermind behind the Democrats' ultimately unsuccessful attempt to retake the State Senate this year, announced today that he was stepping down from his post as Senate minority leader.

Mr. Lynch, a 59-year-old State Senator from Middlesex County, said that it was time for ''new leadership'' and that he wanted to spend more time with his wife and 6-year-old son.

But it was clear that Mr. Lynch, a major player in James E. McGreevey's gubernatorial campaign, still planned to spend much time plotting the Democrats' next political moves. ''I will do all in my power to assure that Jim McGreevey is elected governor in 2001,'' he said.

Mr. Lynch said the candidates he had carefully recruited for this year's Senate races ''would've, could've and should've'' won. But he said he was disappointed that he had not been able to raise even more money to help his candidates in what was the most expensive legislative election in state history.

For the last two years, Mr. Lynch had been consumed with making this election the day that a Democrat was elected governor and the Democratic Party regained control of the State Senate. The Democrats had held the majority in the upper legislative chamber for almost 20 years before voters threw out 10 Democratic senators in 1991 for their support for Gov. Jim Florio's $2.8 billion tax increase.

With that goal in mind, he searched the state for qualified candidates who had nothing to do with the tax increase, ordered the candidates to raise thousands of dollars in political donations on their own and then demanded that they get his approval on every campaign move so that the same messages echoed across the state. The message was that the Republicans in power were to blame for most of the state's woes.

But when the votes had been counted Tuesday night, the 24-to-16 Republican majority in the Senate remained unchanged.

Other Senate Democrats said today that they did not feel that Mr. Lynch's strategy had failed or that the election results had anything to do with his decision to leave the leadership post. ''I think it was something that John had thought about for some time,'' said Senator Richard J. Codey of West Orange. Mr. Codey said that Mr. Lynch did ''a great job'' on the campaign. ''I had never seen anything like it in two decades,'' he said.

Both Senator Codey and Senator Bernard F. Kenny Jr. of Hoboken said today that they planned to seek Mr. Lynch's job. The vote is not expected until after Thanksgiving. Other senators interested in the position are John H. Adler of Cherry Hill, Wayne R. Bryant of Lawnside and Raymond J. Zane of East Greenwich, Mr. Kenny said.

This week, the Assembly Democrats re-elected Joseph V. Doria Jr. of Bayonne as their minority leader. The Republicans re-elected Donald T. DiFrancesco of Scotch Plains as Senate President and Jack Collins of Pittsgrove as Assembly Speaker.